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Quick Bite: Muracci's 2 in Los Altos

By Melinda Sacks

Correspondent

Posted:
12/10/2013 12:00:00 PM PST

Updated:
12/11/2013 10:10:41 AM PST

I have to be careful about taking my husband to Japanese restaurants, because he grew up in Tokyo and has a seasoned and particular palate when it comes to food from Japan. Muracci's 2 wasn't a sure bet since it offers Japanese curry, which wasn't popular back when he was a child there, but it met with his unmitigated approval.

This cozy, family-run dining room in downtown Los Altos was filled with Japanese speakers, many of them regulars, and obviously happy customers, as were we. Muracci's has the number 2 after it because the original takeout restaurant was established in San Francisco. Now there's also a Peninsula outlet for the spicy, satisfying curries and noodle soups that make up the Muracci's 2 menu.

You'll find the service excellent at the cozy, family run Muracciís 2 in Los Altos, which offers a perfect setting for cold weather meals. Photo by Melinda Sacks. (Melinda Sacks)

The curry is a centerpiece of many dishes made from soup stock that has simmered for 20 hours so the added vegetables and spices merge together in a velvety consistency. But don't go expecting a heavy presence of vegetables. While you'll find bits of carrots, green onion and broccoli in many dishes, these hearty bowls and platters are predominantly rice (choose white or brown), protein (chicken, beef, salmon and shrimp), plus the quite delicious house-made curry.

A few veggie dishes with tofu are also on the menu, but vegetarians should read the menu carefully, since some tofu dishes include minced meat and beef broth. Watch for the little orange carrot used to mark vegetarian options.

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Now to the delicious part: Salmon curry ($11.25 at lunch, $15.25 at dinner) comes with pickled vegetables in a partitioned, rectangular side dish. The grilled filet was crisp on the outside, but moist and pink inside (you can also get it fried), accompanied by a generous ladle of just-right rice and a pool of mild curry sauce.

You can specify the level of spiciness for any dish. Tofu and vegetable curry ($9.45 at lunch, $12.50 at dinner) comes spicy enough to make you sniffle, but not so spicy that it burns your lips. The deep bowl of rice, cooked in beef broth and redolent with (but not sopping in) curry, is topped with soft white cubes of tofu and sprinkled with fresh green onions.

Chicken and vegetable curry hot noodle soup ($9.75 lunch, $12.45 at dinner) was our favorite. Tender roasted chicken slivers share the bowl of fat Udon noodles in a broth with broccoli, carrots and potato chunks. The soup had an almost smoky flavor. Soups also come with Ramen noodles if you prefer.

If you order lunch from the "Lunch Set," you'll also get a mini-appetizer, a small house salad and miso soup. Prices range from $10.75 for the fried chicken bowl to $14.75 for the beef teriyaki. At dinner, those prices jump about $3.

A variety of simple, nicely executed appetizers also appear on the dinner menu. Edamame ($4), Agedashi tofu -- deep fried tofu in a salty fish sauce -- ($6.45), and six similarly priced fried Gyoza with a Ponzu dipping sauce make a good starter to share. A Kid's Plate ($8.95) offers choices to the under-12 set -- chicken teriyaki, hamburger or "kid's curry," fruit, salad and rice.

Be sure to ask about the Weekly Special, as it might be Oyster Fry Curry. Four fried ocean-fresh oysters crown a pile of rice and sit side by side with curry sauce ($13.95 lunch, $16.95 dinner.) Squeeze a slice of fresh lime over it all.

One of our drinks was a Ramune soda, the carbonated Japanese drink that comes in a clear plastic bottle and arrives with a hard plastic puncture tool to poke a hole in the top for drinking.

The ultimate compliment from my hubby: "This reminds me so much of my childhood."